Irvin Morazan 2013

Irvin Morazan, of Hunter College, The City University of New York, was awarded the 2013 Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in Painting & Sculpture. The Fellowship carries a $20,000 stipend.

Born in El Salvador, Mr. Morazan and his family immigrated to New Jersey when he was nine to escape the Salvadorian Civil War. The artist draws on both of these cultures with the fantastical sculptures he creates to be worn in performances, photographs and videos that intertwine his indigenous ancestry with contemporary urban subcultures. Merging old tribal traditions with urban street aesthetics, he creates new personas that blur the boundaries of stereotypes. In so doing, Mr. Morazon draws upon multiple associations and meanings while valuing history, theory, humor and everyday life.

Mr. Morazon’s work Ghettoblaster Headdress was worn in a performance created for Times Square in which the artist conducted the movements of a Low Rider with hydraulics and a school of breakdancers ranging in age from children to adults. The car and the dancers responded to the sounds coming out of the boombox and were seemingly controlled by the gold-leafed KFC drumstick waved like the baton of an orchestra conductor.